The Portrayal of Families in TV Shows

What makes up a normal family? What role does each person play and how do they treat each other? I wondered what gave people ideas of what a family was supposed to be like. I noticed that a lot of families are in TV shows and am interested in what messages they give watchers. Does an upper-middle class husband and wife, that have two kids, in a show give a young watcher ideas that's how the typical family is? Do they sub-consciously, or even consciously, have expectations of what they want their family to be like from getting these messages almost every day? I wanted to find out what ideas were being told in TV shows.

I watched a few shows to find out what was being portrayed. I watched an episode of Modern Family, The Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, Glee, and The Office. I looked for who was in the family, their lifestyle, what roles each member in a family played, and how they interacted with each other.

What I found:

Lifestyles: Every family, with the exception of The Office and The Simpsons were upper-middle class. These families talked about financial problems but nothing ever seemed to come of those problems. It seemed pretty obvious they just added them in as a side plot to try to relate to viewers. The majority of families in these shows have big screen TV's, took deluxe vacations, had nice clothes, and lived in a large house in a suburban neighborhood. They made it seem like all these luxuries were standard and if you didn't have them you were poor. I think this gives viewers the idea that it's ideal to be rich and if you aren't then you aren't normal.

Couple statistics: Out of the families featured in the episodes of all the TV shows I watched there were eleven white couples, two couples that weren't white but were the same race, and three couples that were bi-racial. There were only two out of sixteen couples that were homosexual, and both couples were male. This made me realize I can't think of any current couples or characters on TV that I know that are lesbian. I can't say I'm a big TV watcher, but a contestant on America's Next Top Model from a very old season is the only lesbian I can think of.

Parent and kid interactions: The moms were the leader of each household while the dads seemed like they just wanted to relax and act like kids. The moms were also way more protective of their children. The kids turned to their moms for serious issues and to their dads to just have fun. The kids, but especially the girls, were embarrassed by their parents. I was surprised that the traditional role of the man as the head of the house wasn't portrayed. Since the moms were the homemakers and the girls were smarter than their brothers I assumed the dads would continue the pattern of traditional roles.

Couples interactions: Throughout all the shows there was a constant theme of cheating on your spouse. It does happen in real life, but I don't think everyone is constantly paranoid about being cheated on. The mom was usually cooking and cleaning when the kids and dad would walk into the room. It was implied the dads did the manual labor (such as moving furniture) and they weren't expected to make dinner.

Careers: From what I could find each male had a more successful career than his wife. In many cases the woman had quit her job to become a housewife after having childern. When the wife did have a job she was almost never shown at her job and was portrayed as a housewife instead. This was interesting to me because the wife seemed better at handling things and more capable than her husband but yet she didn't go for something that would earn money.

Reflection/ Conclusion: In shows like Modern Family, Desperate Housewives, and The Simpsons there is family troubles but at the same time they are making fun of the fact that families always have troubles in TV shows by putting those stereotypes in there. For example, Homer, from The Simpsons, is a lazy dad that drinks beer; Haley, from Modern Family, is constantly embarrassed by her parents and is obsessed with her looks. They give viewers who aren't aware the show is making fun of stereotypes very strong ideas of what a family is like.

I think the value of having wealth is too big of a deal in TV shows. It seems like they are saying if you are successful you will be rich, but that isn't always true. Many things can be done for your own or other people's hapiness instead of being for the money.

I think there also was a theme of having to having a family the goal in life. It seemed like the people who didn't have a family were more calm and not as mature. For example, Pam and Jim (who are married) from The Office are very cool and collected most of the time where as Michael is older than them but still single and he does ridiculous things. It seemed like single people weren't as respected.

Every situation in the shows I saw could happen but the fact that themes of disrespect and immoral decisions occurred regularly gives viewers its normal and to expect it. There were many arguments between couples and being jealous of someone else who they could be cheating on with. It gives them ideas the problems are unavoidable so it's not worth it to try to avoid them. These are some of the hidden messages in the shows.

I never thought of TV shows as guides to how to live your life and finding these things makes me realize that even more. When making decisions people should chose things they value instead of just what they see others doing on TV.

Sources: I watched the Hawaii episode of Modern Family. I watched the Moe Letter Blues episode of The Simpsons and The Simpsons page of Wikipedia to find out more about the characters. I Watched I Guess This is Goodbye of Desperate Housewives and went to List of Desperate Housewives characters to find out more about the characters. I watched The Chump episode of The Office. I watched the Theatricality episode of Glee and went to Wikipedia and went to the Characters of Glee page. I got my picture of Modern family from http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.tvfanatic.com/images/gallery/modern-family-poster.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tvfanatic.com/gallery/modern-family-poster/&usg=__4CpJ62Z8tzpP1GQjDY0ZDVJLiZw=&h=480&w=360&sz=51&hl=en&start=18&sig2=oBP9wha1OT_tBB8IMnDDTw&itbs=1&tbnid=WnBQohepaxd3bM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmodern%2Bfamily%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=tOUPTM2vHM6DngfRl5ypDQ